


Sokka Can't Waterbend, Moron

by GemmaRose



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Avatar: The Last Airbender References, Gen, Magic, Waterbending & Waterbenders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-07
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-19 02:31:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14864972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: Being a Paladin of Voltron involves more than just piloting and synchronizing and saving the universe. It also comes with some perks, like magic.





	Sokka Can't Waterbend, Moron

“Jeez, how did you even find this place?” Hunk groused as Lance all but dragged him through the castle halls.

“Wandering.” Lance grinned, hurrying up again until he was actually pulling on Hunk’s arm. “Now come _on_.”

“I'm coming, I'm coming.” Hunk chuckled, easily matching Lance’s pace with his own longer stride.

It felt like forever before they got to one of three doors on this level which had seen use in the past week, but in reality Lance was sure it only took maybe a minute. Dobosh. Whatever, it wasn't long, but it felt a hell of a lot longer. Lance released Hunk’s wrist, and punched in the lock code he'd set on the door a day or two after making his discovery. “Ready?” he asked, hand hovering over the button to open the door.

“Lance, you've been hyping this thing up since we got out of our armour.” Hunk said tersely. “Yes I'm ready to see.”

Lance poked the button, and inhaled deeply as he was hit with a wall of warm, humid, salty air. Every hour spent deciphering the pool’s manual had been so very, very worth it just for that smell. Hunk drew a quick breath behind him, and Lance smiled as he walked a few steps into the room. “The floating pool is pretty sweet and sci-fi, but I like this one better.” he shut his eyes, immersing himself in the familiar, soothing sound of water lapping at the edge of the pool. Hunk’s footsteps rang dull on the tile floor, and bounced back softly from the blue-grey walls. 

“How long did you spend working on this?” he asked, voice low and damn near what Lance would describe as awed, possibly even reverent.

“When's the last time we hung out on our afternoon break?” Lance replied, his eyes sliding open. Hunk was crouched at the water’s edge, one hand lowered far enough that his fingers dipped into the water.

“Wow, that's- that's a while.” Hunk chuckled, standing and wiping his hand on his shirt.

“But worth it.” Lance grinned as he walked forwards, picking up speed with each step. Hunk turned at the last second, and Lance got to see the look of absolute shock on his best friend’s face when the heels of his palms hit Hunk’s vest. He managed to skid to a stop before going over into the pool, but Hunk never had a chance. His yelp echoed off the walls far more clearly than his footsteps had, though it was largely drowned out by the following splash. Lance cackled, and skipped back a few steps to avoid the worst of the spray.

Hunk surface spluttering, and the glare he gave Lance was the final straw. Lance cackled, doubling over and clutching his stomach. “Your _face_.” he howled, cheeks hurting with the force of his grin. “Oh my god, that was worth every fucking second.”

“Oh my god, Lance, you’re such a jerk!” Hunk slapped his hands against the water, briefly dipping below the surface before bobbing back up.

“But you still love me.” Lance teased through giggles.

Hunk sighed, and swam over to grab the edge of the pool. “Yeah.” he heaved himself up out of the water. “Did you seriously find and fix a pool just to dunk me, though? Because man, that’s some crazy dedication to the pranking life. I’m proud.” Hunk grinned, and Lance swallowed the last of his giggles.

“Actually, I wanted you to double check the filters and stuff before showing it to the rest of the team.” he admitted. “I did the best I could, but some of the parts make weird noises and I don’t know if they’re supposed to do that or if they’re about to, like, explode or something.”

“Fair.” Hunk nodded after a moment. “Alright, lemme change into something less drippy and I’ll take a look.” he stood, and his shoes made a squeaky squishing sound on the tile.

“There’s a changing room.” Lance said, and gestured for Hunk to follow him. He’d picked out swimsuits from the adjacent storage closet a while back, and sure Pidge and Shiro’s he had to guess on the sizes but Hunk had been his roomie for over a year at the Garrison. He reached into one of the lockers, pulled out the orange-yellow gradient swim trunks with a thick white stripe on either side, and tossed them at Hunk. “Here, these should fit.”

It wasn’t long after that before they were in the closet which housed the pool filter and other maintenance type things, Hunk crouched down in front of the maintenance panel and Lance leaning over his shoulder. The filter was still making that weird noise, but after Hunk pushed a few buttons and twisted a mechanical piece they got a lot quieter. “How’d you do that?” he asked, pushing off of Hunk’s shoulder and stepping back to give his friend some space.

“I turned it down.” Hunk grinned proudly. “I bet the pool was filthy when you turned this on, right?”

Lance nodded. The water had been disgusting; it had taken ages to get the smell out.

“Well, the sensor on this thing was misaligned, so it was still treating the water like it was highly contaminated. Should be good for another few months now before it needs a tune-up.” Hunk patted the machine’s case, and shut the door. “So, we gonna go get the others? I’ll help you dunk ‘em.”

Lance snorted. “C’mon, man. We’ve gotta do a quality check first!” he skipped back a step towards the door, and saw comprehension damn on Hunk’s face.

“Bet you I can make a bigger splash!” Hunk yelled, running after him. The textured tile was cool on his bare feet as he bolted across the deck, laughing with his best friend.

“¡Bala de cañón!” he shouted as he leapt from the edge of the deck. The water that closed over his head was perfectly warm, exactly the temperature of the ocean in summer, and he surfaced with a laugh. And kept surfacing.

“Whoa!” he yelped, water flying from his hair in perfectly round droplets as he whipped his head side to side, taking in the water lapping its way up out of the pool. His eyes locked on Hunk pretty quick, and he saw the instant his friend realized what had happened. Gravity suddenly kicked back in, and Lance fell maybe a foot along with the water around him. Hunk shrieked as gravity took effect on his forward momentum, sending him hurtling towards the far edge of the pool, and Lance’s heart leapt into his throat.

“Hunk!” he screamed as Blue roared like a breaking tsunami in the back of his head, throwing one hand out as if he could do anything. As if he could save his best friend from such a distance.

A wave rose from the water at the other end of the pool, and then didn’t fall. Instead, it rose higher, wrapping around Hunk’s body and suspending him a good few inches above the ground. Hunk stopped screaming, and twisted as much as he could to look at Lance. “Are you-?”

Lance let his arm fall, and the water crashed down as a massive amount of tension left his arm and shoulder. Hunk swore as he hit the floor, but Lance didn’t hear it because whatever he’d been standing on vanished and he dropped below the surface. Holy fuck. Holy _fuck_! He kicked back up to the surface and whooped. “Did you see that?!” he yelled, kicking over to the nearest wall and latching onto it with one hand. “Did you fucking _see that_?!” he pulled himself up onto the edge of the pool and scrambled to his feet on the wet tile.

“Yeah, I- thanks?” Hunk looked, and sounded, vaguely stunned. Lance whooped again and punched both hands in the air before spinning on his heel.

“I’m a waterbender, Hunk! I’m an actual, honest to-” he stopped, and his face hurt from how wide he was smiling but he didn’t care. “Holy hell, I’m Space Sokka!”

Hunk laughed, and when he started towards the nearer end of the pool Lance matched him. As soon as his friend was in reach, he grabbed Hunk’s forearms and bounced up and down in front of him. “I’m Space Sokka, Hunk.” he squealed.

“Uh, no.” Hunk shook his head.

“What? Come on! I’m funny, blue, a freaking waterbender,”

“Sokka wasn’t a bender, you doofus.” Hunk freed one of his arms and poked Lance in the forehead. “There was a whole episode dedicated to this.” he grinned, and ruffled Lance’s wet hair. “You’re Katara.”

“Oh shut up, Toph.” Lance said with a smile, giving Hunk a shove on the shoulder.

“Please.” Hunk rolled his eyes. “If any of us is Toph, it’s Pidge. I’m Iroh.”

“Iroh? Really?” Lance crossed his arms. “Your Lion is guardian of the land!”

“Yeah, but Iroh’s awesome, and Pidge is the small angry green one.”

“Got me there.” Lance admitted, and Hunk grinned.

“Yknow, that makes Keith Zuko.”

A mental image of Keith in full cosplay flashed through his mind, and Lance snorted. “His hair is awful enough.”

“L _ance_.” Hunk pressed a hand to his chest, looking and sounding absolutely scandalized. “Comparing him to Book 1 Zuko like that is an offense to mullets everywhere.”

Lance gave Hunk a shove, and stared as Hunk tipped backwards in slow motion. Gravity kicked back in at full power as soon as his friend yelped, and Lance winced at the squish-thud of Hunk hitting the floor.

“I hate gravity.” Hunk grumbled, pushing himself up. Lance offered a hand, and Hunk grinned as he took it. Lance barely had time to register the expression before he was flying through the air over the water. “Love getting payback, though!” Hunk yelled across the pool. Lance hit the water hard, air rushing out his mouth and nose in a cloud of bubbles. He breached the surface with a gasp, and it only took a few strokes to reach the edge. 

Lance huffed as he pulled himself up out of the water, and paused when he got one leg over the edge. It felt weird, too easy. As he stood he looked over at Hunk, who was doubled over laughing, then down at his feet on the tile. He bent his knees, and hopped. His eyes widened, and a smile spread across his face. That answered that.

“Hey, Hunk!” Lance called out, bounding over to his friend. “I figured out the gravity thing!”

“What?” Hunk frowned, a giggle slipping out.

“The gravity thing.” Lance repeated. He could already feel himself settling properly on the balls of his feet. “It’s not a castle glitch, you’re doing it. I’ve got waterbending, you’ve got _gravity bending_.”

“What?” Hunk frowned harder. “Dude, gravity bending isn’t even a thing. And even if it was, I don’t have magic like you.”

“Okay, not bending.” Lance conceded. “But you do have magic, and I can prove it.”

“How?” Hunk crossed his arms.

“Okay, so this is how high I can jump, right?” Lance jumped, and Hunk nodded. “Now remember that article you saw the friday before we left about oil drilling just upstream of a national park?”

Hunk scowled, and Lance jumped again. He went notably less far, and the impact jarred his ankles and knees way more than it should’ve. Gravity abruptly returned to normal, and Lance grinned wide. “See?”

“Holy shit.” Hunk looked down at his hands, then up at Lance. “I’m Steven Universe!”

“What?” Lance squinted.

“Steven Universe.” Hunk repeated. “That show with the gems?”

“Oh, yeah!” Lance nodded as he recalled marathoning it with Hunk over a long weekend. “Wait, you’re not gonna tell me you’re half alien, are you?” he squinted at his friend. Hunk snorted, and punched him in the shoulder.

“Please. You’ve seen my parents on video calls.”

“Yeah, well Allura looks pretty human.” Lance pointed out. “Or, hell, you could have a Star Trek type alien parent. Those fucks are basically human.”

“Trek aliens are mostly bullshit.” Hunk said with a decisive nod. “But nah, man, I’m human.”

“So how come you’ve got magic?” Lance asked, stepping closer to poke Hunk in the shoulder.

“I don’t know. How do you have waterbending?”

“Blue.” Lance said, then blinked. He hadn’t even thought before answering, but it did make sense. She was optimized for underwater work, and both times so far that he’d used waterbending he’d heard her in the back of his head. The one time in the shower, the water droplets had started doings weird things when he was trying to get her to convince the rest of the lions to play along for a prank. “And if Yellow is guardian of the land, well, what are planets mostly made up of?” he gestured at the floor, despite the castle being without a single bit of dirt under its landing struts.

“Wait, do you think the others have powers too?” Hunk grinned. “Because Red’s element is fire, and that’d make Keith _extra_ Zuko.”

Lance punched Hunk in the arm. “You are such a dork.”

“You started it.” Hunk chuckled, and Lance felt like he could just float away. “C’mon, let’s go ask the rest of the team.” he turned towards the door, and Lance grabbed his wrist.

“Wait.” he said, drawing Hunk’s attention as gravity went back to normal. “Do we really have to tell them right away?”

“Why wouldn’t we?”

“Well, neither of us have a handle on our powers yet. How lame would it be to run in yelling that we’re benders and not be able to prove it?”

“Oh.” Hunk nodded, and Lance released his wrist. “Yeah, you’ve got a point.”

“Of course I do, I’m Space Katara.” Lance waved a hand dismissively, and Hunk grinned. “But anyways, when we tell the others we have to do it _right_.”

“Oh no.” Hunk shook his head. “I know that face. That’s the face of ‘someone is gonna get detention for a week’ and, spoilers, it’s usually _us_.”

Lance rolled his eyes. There weren’t even any classrooms on the castle, let alone teachers to give out detentions. “We’re not students anymore, you know.” he pointed out. “The worst that can happen is like, we get extra chores.”

“Yeah, but still.” Hunk shifted from foot to foot, and Lance reached out to grab his shoulder.

“Bro, look.” he said in as serious a tone as he could manage. “We’re not required to tell anyone about this, and if we wait a week or a movement or whatever then we get to impress them by having magic we’re not awful at.”

“You have a point.” Hunk said slowly. “Did you have any plans in mind?”

“Not yet.” Lance shook his head. “I mean, we only found out about this, like, a few minutes ago?” he stepped back and gestured to the pool. “So, how about we take advantage of having a whole pool to ourselves and start planning later?”

“Oh, idea.” Hunk said, lighting up. “We need somewhere to practice, right?”

Lance nodded. He hadn’t thought of that, but Hunk was right. If he wanted to impress the rest of the team, he’d need to practice with his magic even more than he practiced with his bayard.

“Well, this pool is super out of the way, and we’re the only ones who know where it is.”

“Plenty of water for me, and it can double as a safety net for you.” Lance grinned. “And, when we get tired of practising magic, we can go swimming.”

“Hell yeah.” Hunk punched him gently in the shoulder. “Now c’mon, I still think I can make a bigger splash.”

“Well duh!” Lance laughed, but followed Hunk in jumping into the pool.


End file.
